What defines business intelligence architecture?

Business intelligence architecture is fundamentally defined as a structured framework for data integration. This architecture comprises various technologies, processes, and tools that allow organizations to gather, store, analyze, and present data. It effectively unifies data from disparate sources, transforming it into a format suitable for analysis, thus enabling informed decision-making.

The essence of business intelligence architecture lies in its ability to create a cohesive environment that brings together all necessary data—whether it comes from databases, cloud storage, or various applications—into a single unified view. This integration is crucial because it allows for comprehensive analysis and reporting across the organization, ensuring that the data used for insights is accurate, complete, and relevant.

While reporting financials, data visualization tools, and performance evaluation models are essential components of a business intelligence strategy, they represent the outcomes or functions that the architecture supports. The architecture itself, however, is specifically focused on how data is integrated and managed, laying the groundwork for successful BI initiatives.